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Welcome to The AI Report — the #1 AI newsletter for business leaders.

You don’t need to be technical. Just informed.

• 1. 💻 Rewire the C-suite for an AI-first world with IBM
• 2. ⚡️ Blackstone backs Anthropic
• 3. 💼 Your Business Briefing
• 4. 💪 Boost conversions up to 6X with Kumo
• 5. ✍️ Today’s Policy Corner
• 6. 🗞️ The News Bulletin

Are you ready to launch AI transformation for your company?

TOGETHER WITH IBM

Rewire the C-suite for an AI-first world

2026 is the year CEOs must redesign decision-making, redistribute authority, and manage how AI reshapes influence—while maintaining speed and clarity.

The 2026 CEO Study from IBM suggests plays to fulfill now, including:
 Rethink: Hire—and heed—a Chief AI Officer.
 Orchestrate: Redesign how cross-functional teams work together.
 Customize: Move beyond pre-trained foundation AI models.
 Roll: Ready your leadership to pivot often.

Latest in AI

Blackstone backs Anthropic

🚨 Our Report

Anthropic has announced the formation of a new AI services company in partnership with Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, and Goldman Sachs. The firm will deploy Claude into core operations at mid-sized companies across sectors, with applied AI engineers from Anthropic working alongside the new company's team to build custom solutions.

🔓 Key Points

• The new firm is backed by a consortium of alternative asset managers including General Atlantic, Leonard Green, Apollo Global Management, GIC, and Sequoia Capital, reflecting strong investor interest in enterprise AI delivery.

• Engagements will target companies that lack in-house AI resources, with engineers working directly with staff to identify where Claude can have the most impact, from healthcare documentation to compliance workflows.

• The company will join Anthropic's Claude Partner Network, extending delivery capacity beyond existing partnerships with Accenture, Deloitte, and PwC to reach a broader range of mid-market enterprises.

🔐 Relevance

This move addresses a gap in enterprise AI adoption: mid-sized companies often can't afford the resources needed for custom AI deployments. By pairing Anthropic's AI expertise with major private equity capital, the partnership creates a scalable delivery model that could accelerate Claude's enterprise footprint. For business leaders evaluating AI vendors, Anthropic's expanded service infrastructure points to a maturing ecosystem and sustained focus on enterprise support.

The AI Report Podcast

Monday.com Co-Founder: "We Changed the Vision of the Company Completely" | Roy Mann on Agents

THE BUSINESS BRIEFING: MARKETING (powered by Upscaile)

At Home (mid-market home décor retailer, 200+ stores) was sending 140,000 weekly emails with static product grids that didn't reflect what customers browsed or abandoned. Open rates were solid, but click rates stalled because content was outdated by the time subscribers opened emails. They implemented Movable Ink with Salesforce to build a dynamic "waterfall" personalization module that prioritized abandoned products, then browsing behavior, then trending items based on style preference, all updated at moment of open, not send.

Tool used: Movable Ink -- turns emails into dynamic experiences that pull live site content and behavioral signals at moment of open.

Result: 20% of weekly clicks now driven by behavior-based personalization. Design and development work cut by 75% (setup reduced to minutes vs hours). UGC-powered reactivation campaigns saw 15% lift in total clicks.

The lesson: Dynamic content only works if you let behavior drive the hierarchy. At Home didn't randomize—they built a strict waterfall: abandoned cart first, browsing history second, trending products third. Priority ordering matters more than personalization breadth.

Steal this: Map your three highest-intent signals (abandoned, browsed, clicked) and rank them by conversion probability. Build one email module that shows the top-ranked signal per recipient. Test it in your next send.

TOGETHER WITH KUMO

Will this customer churn? Is this transaction fraud? Which ad converts?

Billion-dollar questions traditional LLMs can't answer because they treat relational data in data warehouse as tokens, not graphs. KumoRFM-2 changes that: the first foundation model to outperform PhD data scientists and supervised ML. No pipelines. Just connect your warehouse and ask in plain English.

Databricks agrees:

THE POLICY CORNER

Connecticut becomes first state to regulate AI employment decisions — law takes effect January 1, 2027.

Connecticut passed Senate Bill 5, requiring companies using AI to screen job candidates or make employment decisions to conduct annual independent bias audits and disclose results publicly. Applies to any employer making AI-driven hiring, promotion, or termination decisions affecting Connecticut residents, regardless of company headquarters. Passed with bipartisan support (131-17 in the House, 32-4 in the Senate) and signed into law by Governor Lamont.

Deadline: January 1, 2027. Annual audits required thereafter.

Risk: Fines begin at $500 per violation per affected worker. Law also creates liability exposure for discrimination claims if audits reveal bias or aren't conducted. Attorney General William Tong signaled enforcement will be a priority.

Your move: Inventory every AI tool your HR team uses for resume screening, candidate ranking, or performance evaluation. Contact vendors this quarter to confirm they can provide compliant bias audit documentation before the deadline.

AI News

• 🔐 OpenAI launches physical security keys for ChatGPT: Partnership with Yubico delivers hardware-backed authentication to protect accounts from phishing, already used internally by OpenAI employees. FULL STORY

• 🤝 Anthropic and OpenAI both launch enterprise AI ventures: Anthropic raises $1.5B with Blackstone and H&F for forward-deployed engineers, while OpenAI raises $4B for similar venture at $10B valuation. FULL STORY

• 🛡️ Microsoft launches Agent 365 to govern AI agents: New management layer lets enterprises discover, secure, and control agents across Windows devices, cloud platforms, and SaaS tools to combat shadow AI. FULL STORY

• ⚔️ Pentagon signs classified AI deals with seven tech giants, excludes Anthropic: SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, Nvidia, Reflection, Microsoft, and AWS integrated into classified military networks while Anthropic remains barred over guardrail disputes. FULL STORY

Trending AI Tools (Sponsored by the AI Leaders Guide)

A curated look at the AI tools quietly transforming how teams work.

1. Framer* helps companies launch their websites lightning fast. Enterprise needs at startup speed.  No dev team, no hassle.

2. Murf AI is a dynamic AI voice generator for converting text to lifelike speech

3. KnowBuddy is an AI-driven WhatsApp chatbot that answers queries and handles tasks

^{*indicates a promoted tool, if any}

⚡️ Looking for the exact AI tools our team uses to run The AI Report?

The Money: AI moves past the model layer

Enterprise AI buyers stopped betting on intelligence and started betting on infrastructure. Two of this week's largest rounds targeted operational platforms that handle work as customers signal they're done experimenting with chatbots and ready to commit capital to systems that move claims, code, and customer problems through end-to-end workflows at scale.

Deals to know:

• Sierra (Series D, $950M) -- Bret Taylor's AI agent platform hit $150M ARR in 18 months serving 40% of the Fortune 50. Handles billions of interactions from mortgage refinancing to insurance claims. Investors: Tiger Global, GV

• Reserv (Series C, $125M) -- AI-native TPA processing 500K complex insurance claims annually, targeting 30M by 2030. Hit $100M ARR with 200+ insurer clients in four years. Investors: KKR, Bain Capital Ventures, Flourish Ventures

Signal: Capital is flowing to companies that own the full workflow, not just the model call. Investors betting the next $10B+ outcomes come from AI that touches money, not generating text.

Refer a Friend

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Until next time, Arturo and Liam.

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